Lymph Node News and Research

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Lymph is clear or white fluid that travels through vessels, moves within tissues and work to keep all the parts of the body clean. After passing through the channels of the lymphatic system they drain into the lymph nodes. The lymph nodes act as filters along the lymphatic system. These nodes trap germs like bacteria, viruses, toxins as well as cancer cells and ensure that these are removed from the body.

Genetic signature that can identify breast cancer patients at high risk of distant recurrence

Researchers have discovered a genetic signature that can identify breast cancer patients at high risk of distant recurrence, reporting their results in this week’s issue of The Lancet.

20 Feb 2005

Screening for toxoplasmosis for all pregnant women and newborns is necessary

Physicians found that signs, symptoms and identifiable risk factors are absent in more than half of the mothers of infants with congenital toxoplasmosis in a national study of children with this disease.

9 Feb 2005

Prions, previously thought to accumulate mainly in the brain can also infect other organs

Prions, infectious proteins associated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or Mad Cow Disease, were previously thought to accumulate mainly in the brain, but Yale and University of Zurich researchers report in Science that other organs can also become infected.

7 Feb 2005

Activate dendritic cells turn on biological clock

A molecule specially modified by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine can reset the biological clock for cancer vaccines, potentially making them more potent.

24 Jan 2005

Adding radiation therapy to chemotherapy improves survival in patients with high-risk breast cancer

For patients with high-risk breast cancer treated with radical mastectomy and adjuvant chemotherapy, the addition of radiation therapy leads to better survival outcomes with few long-term toxic effects, according to a 20-year follow-up of a randomized trial, which appears in the January 19 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

19 Jan 2005

Newly discovered virus, New Haven coronavirus

A newly discovered virus may be responsible for many respiratory tract illnesses in infants and children, and may be associated with an important multi-organ disease whose cause has remained a mystery for decades, according to articles in the Feb. 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online.

19 Jan 2005

Broadening treatment to battle recurrence of endometrial cancer

Mayo Clinic researchers studying endometrial cancer have found that patients at risk for relapse based on identified risk factors had a 46 percent probability of experiencing recurrence within five years despite treatment with state-of-the-art therapy.

18 Jan 2005

Smaller lymph nodes seen on abdominal CT scans in "healthy" people are not clinically significant

Smaller lymph nodes commonly seen on abdominal CT scans in "healthy" people are not clinically significant and require no further imaging, a new study confirms. The study was performed because there is no standard as to what should be done about these patients so they often undergo additional testing to rule out inflammation, cancer or other diseases.

9 Jan 2005

Potential cure for lymphoma in HIV patients

Stem cell transplants have become the standard of care for patients with relapsed lymphoma, but not for patients who suffer from both this disease and HIV.

7 Jan 2005

Study shows women with invasive lobular carcinoma may not need chemotherapy before surgery

Women with a rare type of advanced breast cancer who do not benefit from primary (pre-surgical) chemotherapy still have been found to do better in the long run than patients with a more common advanced breast cancer who do respond to chemotherapy.

3 Jan 2005

Technique that could begin to make the staging of cancer both more accurate and less invasive

In a paper published in the premier open-access medical journal PloS Medicine this month, Mukesh Harisinghani and Ralph Weissleder describe a technique that could begin to make the staging of cancer both more accurate and less invasive.

28 Dec 2004

Patients with cancer detected on screening mammography undergo less toxic treatment

Women who have their breast cancers detected by physical examinations are at least twice as likely to undergo toxic treatments than those who have their cancer detected by mammography—regardless of the age of the woman, a new study shows.

28 Dec 2004

Women over the age of 60 with low-risk breast cancer may not need to receive radiation therapy after surgery

The current treatment standard recommended for most women with early stage breast cancer is breast conservation therapy, consisting of lumpectomy following by radiotherapy. The purpose of the radiotherapy is to kill any tumor cells in the remaining breast area that may have been missed by the surgery.

13 Dec 2004

First live imaging of specialized immune system cells reveals new clues about body’s security system

To keep the body safe, the immune system enlists more than one form of protection. A circulating task force of immune system cells monitors the body’s periphery, and sends information back to field command centers — the lymph nodes — located at pivotal traffic points.

6 Dec 2004

Study will help cancer survivors treated with radical hysterectomy regain their sexual health

When Linda Mercer underwent a radical hysterectomy to treat her cancer, she found herself and her husband struggling to regain a satisfying sex life.

4 Dec 2004

Animal model helps explain how AIDS virus spreads throughout the body following oral exposure

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have utilized an animal model to trace how the virus that causes AIDS in humans may enter and spread throughout the body following an oral exposure.

3 Dec 2004

New non-surgical technique that can help doctors determine when breast cancer has invaded the lymph nodes

A key question after a cancer diagnosis is whether the cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes. Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have found a new non-surgical technique that can help doctors determine when breast cancer has invaded the lymph nodes, sparing some women an extra trip to the operating room.

29 Nov 2004

Understanding the signals that delay the spread of follicular lymphoma could provide new therapeutic targets

Scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), have created a model that predicts the survival of follicular lymphoma patients based on the molecular characteristics of their tumors at diagnosis.

18 Nov 2004

Pioneering surgical technique for treatment of breast cancer

Women in Britain with breast cancer will soon benefit from a pioneering surgical technique developed by Professor Robert Mansel and his team at Cardiff University, Wales College of Medicine in the UK.

16 Nov 2004

Combining radiation therapy with surgery and chemotherapy helps patients with rare forms of thyroid cancer live longer

Combining radiation therapy with surgery and chemotherapy helps patients with rare forms of thyroid cancer live longer, according to a study published in the November 15, 2004, issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology~Biology~Physics, the official journal of ASTRO, the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology.